Its as if no one really listens or takes a lesson!
It wasn't that long ago--- maybe six weeks, that we were
reading and hearing in the news how a Dallas Cowboy lost control of his car--
flipped it side over side on a service road along highway 114 in Irving, Texas,
and killing the passenger of the vehicle, who was also a teammate.
Josh Brent, killed his best friend, his "brother",
has he called him, and in doing so, has set himself up for Intoxicated
Manslaughter, which will carry a penalty of up to 20 years in prison. We have
heard that his alcohol intake was twice the legal limit, and to add insult to
injury, he was on the sidelines of a Dallas Cowboys Game, that caused a lot of
people to be upset that this person was allowed to be a part of his team on
that particular Sunday.
He got the message, and left when he felt that he was being
more of a distraction than a cheerleader for his team.
Now we move to early Tuesday Morning on January 22, 2013,
along a stretch of highway that might sound a bit familiar-- 114... yep that
same stretch of road, only about 10 or 12 miles to the west of where the other
accident took place... this time in the town of Grapevine.
Once again its a Dallas Cowboy, once again, its a Defensive
Lineman-- this time, once again, it is a name that most people recognize, and
this time, this person was arrested at the scene, only no one was seriously
hurt or killed in the accident.
Yes boys and girls, we are talking about Jay Ratliff. The
starting Nose Tackle for the Dallas Cowboys, who was under the influence of
alcohol, and hit the back end of an 18 wheeler on Hwy 114.
DID YOU NOT LEARN A THING???? REALLY!!!! Mr. Ratliff...
WHERE YOU NOT THERE? INSIDE THE LOCKERROOM? WHERE YOU NOT THERE WHEN THEY PUT THAT
DECAL OF NUMBER 53 and slapped it on the back of your helmet? DID I MISS
SOMETHING?
What in the world do we have to do, to make these young
athletes understand, its not like the good ol days when Mickey Mantle and
Whitey Ford, or Billy Martin, or a handful of other famous people would go and
tie one on... and then go home.
In those days, the media left you alone, in those days it
was not uncommon for the media to be sitting right there with you at the
restaurant or bar and buying you the drinks themselves, but not for the story,
but to hang out with you, and be your friend.
Today, its camera phones, and Ipads and every other device
you can think of, to instantly take that photo or video and up load it to
Facebook, or Google Plus, or You Tube, or whatever, and in the end, our little
world comes crumbling down.
Drunk Driving first and foremost is STUPID-- and we all know
the adage that "YOU CAN"T FIX STUPID!". Its true, you can't, but
you CAN prevent it.
Our athletes, are not like the ones we grew up with. OUR
heroes, were "GODS"! I say that, more to say that we worshiped their
"fetes" on the field of play, be it any of the sports!
WE didn't care what they did off the field, as long as they
didn't kill someone, but most time they didn't! Most of the time, they just
blew off some steam and went about their lives, and it pretty much didn't
affect their play the next day.
Hell, if we had our "instant" media in those
years, guys like Babe Ruth, and Ty Cobb would have been banned from Baseball
for life, Joe DiMaggio would have never had married Marilyn Monroe, because he
would not have been able to take all the bombardment of media at his front door
waiting on them to drive up or run into them at the restaurants. What did
happen still was enough to make Joltin Joe divorce the sex siren after a short
marriage.
Today-- its different, our "heroes" are not bullet
proof anymore, and that might be the crux right there, they aren't guys and
gals that can dodge the media bullets, and with that comes the price, and it is
a heavy one at that. DWI's are pretty bad, and more than that, they are deadly,
just ask Josh Brent about that.
So Mr. Ratliff, learn from this mistake, and Mr. JONES! Yes
JERRY JONES! You hired Calvin Hill (former running back for the Cowboys in the
late 60's and early 70's) to help the team with situations like this and financial,
something fell through the cracks, time to fix it once again! AND you better
hurry before another player is arrested for the same thing, and maybe once
again your team assembles for a funeral!
NONE of us wishes that on anyone! NONE
OF US!
